


Wounds heal, scars stay

by The_Poptart_Cat



Series: Poptart’s separated one-shots [9]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: 2 Deaths really, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Angst and whump with bad ending, Bad Ending, Bc I don’t want people to be uncomfortable or sad, Blood, Blood and Injury, Canonical Character Death, Centi is in this for a bit, Character Death, Consent the tags, Cracked Gems, Cracked Steven Universe, DO NOT IGNORE!, Death, Gen, I don’t really call it Graphic but it’s probably not kid-friendly, MWA HA HA!, No Fluff, Not Really Character Death, Rose’s Fountain, The end., Whump, bc I’m evil, one is canon and he gets revived, taking the injuries, the other isn’t canon and dies forever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27627458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Poptart_Cat/pseuds/The_Poptart_Cat
Summary: My scars tell a story, they are a reminder of times when life tried to break me, and failed. They are markings of where the structure of my character was wielded-Steve MaraboliSteven’s human half causes him to take the injury to himself.
Series: Poptart’s separated one-shots [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2052384
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Wounds heal, scars stay

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Picture of Steven Pink](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11117310) by [citrusella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrusella/pseuds/citrusella). 



“What am I going to tell my parents? What am I going to tell my optometrist?!” Connie asked Steven.

“I don't even know! Oh thank you Connie!” He hugged Connie “Lion, let's go tell the Gems, they're never going to believe this!”

The two raced down the hill but Steven’s vision became blurry. He tripped once. And then twice, thrice.

“Steven, is something wrong?”

“Nope.” He replied. “Come on! We have to tell the gems!”

“Alright.” Connie said with unease.

When Connie left and the gems were in the temple, Steven warped to the fountain and dunked his head to heal his eyes.

* * *

“I can heal your gem! I have healing powers.”

“Wait, you have healing powers?”

“I know, right?”

“Oh, what should I…” she looked around.

“Oh, uh, sorry. This might be a little weird.”

“What?”

Steven licked his hand and put it on Lapis’ gem. He felt the cracks forming on his gem and it was very very painful. He barely held back a scream and clutched his stomach.

  
  


“Thank you, Steven.

  
  


“No prob, bob.”

  
  


“It’s Lapis

  
  


“Yeah.”

  
  


“Okay, bye.”

  
  


Steven watched as she flew off into space. The water tower started to rumble and started to crumble and ended up collapsing.

  
  


“The whole tower's coming down!”

  
  


“What about Steven?” Greg asked worriedly. Connie and Lion nodded at each other.

The two teleported and picked up Steven mid-air.

It was lucky that no one thought to check his gem or saw it at all. Later, he went back to the fountain again later that day. He saw it repaired with light pink lines where it was cracked

* * *

“Wait, Steven. Don't you have healing powers now? ”Amethyst asked

Pearl smiled nervously “Oh, right, yes! You fix Greg, I'll fix the van. Nobody has to live with us.” She muttered

Steven gasped “Yeah! Mm-hmm! Here goes something new and exciting.” He licked his hand “And... go!” He patted his hand on Greg's leg “Okay, you should be better now.” Steven said as he felt his leg slowly breaking. He bit back a whimper.

“Okay, if you say so.” Greg tried to stand up, but fell.

_‘He’s lying.’_ Steven thought. He decided to act so he wouldn’t be caught.

“Why didn't it work?” He said with false sadness

“Hey, sorry, buddy. Maybe you just need a little more practice.”

“But, I was doing so well before!”

“Steven, don't worry about it. Your powers are a bit fickle, after all.” Pearl reassured.

“Just give it a bit more time.”

When Greg and Steven got home, Greg noticed Steven limping and politely refusing to do things, one too many times.

“Something bothering you, kiddo?”

“Nah. Just thinking.” He lied. He hopped over to warp. “Dad, I’ll be right back, uh, my laundry is done.”  
  


Steven warped to the fountain and was relieved when his leg healed. To make sure his dad believed him, he went to go get some laundry that was in the dryer.

He warped back “Hey dad, I’m back.

Later that day, Steven couldn’t heal because he was disappointed in his dad so they used tape. Steven saw scars, tracing where his dad had broken his leg and where he had taken it. This was the day he realized only he could see the scars.

* * *

Steven sat, deciding what to do with his stuffed animals. He noticed a rip on Master of Ceremonies Bear-Bear.

“Oh no! MC Bear-Bear, you've got a tear-tear!”

He kissed the teddy bear and he felt his skin rip into a cut under his armpit and some blood started to drip already.

“Ow.” He whined, not used to being hurt after so long.

“Steven, are you okay?” Pearl asked

“Yeah. I just stubbed my toe. But guys! My healing powers! They’re back!” He said, carrying the teddy bear down while making sure he didn’t lift his arm.

Later, he got the idea of healing Centi and healing her. Maybe it was because he hadn’t fixed the cut under his arm yet and he was feeling a bit light headed.

“You guys ready?”

Garnet nodded while Amethyst and Pearl braced themselves. Steven popped the bubble and Centipeetle began to regenerate.

“Come on dude, do your thing!”

“Be careful!”

Steven licked his palm and put it on Centi. As she turned into a humanoid shape, he felt himself get tiny horns under his hair, hidden just enough so no one could see it. He saw tiny purple and pink dots scattered on his arms, barely visible and there were spikes on his shoulders and his sides, which made the cut from earlier hurt more. It was the most painful experience he thought he’d ever been through.

“I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Okay.” Pearl said as she let him out. “Hurry up. I don’t know if we can handle her for too long.

“‘Kay” he walked out and warped to the fountain. He wobbled over as fast as he could. He looked at the cut in his armpit and it was bigger than he thought, almost the length of his arm _‘If Dr. Maheswaran was here, she'd be mad.’_

He dove (more accurately, fell) in and his slight corruption and cut retreated. The boy returned, flushed the toilet and washed his hands to make it seem real. He knocked and went back in, grateful that the fountain water dried up as soon as you left it.

That night, when he was changing into his PJs, he saw more scars.

* * *

One of the scariest, if not the _scariest_ thing he ever saw was Lars die. When he smashed the crystal into the robonoid and fell to the ground, Steven rushed to him. “Lars!” He wasn’t moving. “Lars! Steven turned him over “Lars?”

The Off-Colors walked over and cheered for him.

“I didn't think we were gonna make it!”

“That was amazing! You were amazing! Lars, that was so great!”

“We're winning! We're winning!”

After too long for Steven, he tried to hear a heartbeat but there was none. He gasped in shock and started crying which quieted the gems behind him. Steven picked up Lars and held him to his chest. His tears dropped into Lars. Steven suddenly felt weaker and he looked down at Lars before realizing. _‘This is how I die.’_

Lars started glowing and slowly turned Pink. _‘Lars… I die for Lars…”_ He looked down before looking up confidently, ultimately making a decision, even if he never had the choice. _‘I-I don’t want to die. But Lars is worth it.’_ Steven was officially ready to die.

Lars came back to life and sat up.

“Lars! I revived you! I’m so sorry you-” He said before hugging him, not having the guts to say it “I have to die now, Lars. I’m sorry.” He said, tears dripping as he got a new scar on his eye, that’s was once Lars’ _‘I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna die.’_

“Wha-?!”

“J-Just tell the gems I love them. A-And Connie and dad and Lion.”

“What?! Steven-!?”

“I’m sorry Lars.” _‘I love you, guys.’_ He thought as he took his final breath.

“Steven?” No response.”Steven? This isn’t funny!” He unwrapped Steven from the hug and looked at him “Wake up! I’m serious!” He shook the hybrid “Oh my gosh! He’s-“ the ‘dead’ went unsaid. He tried to run his hand through his hair but it started glowing.

He came up with an idea.

“Hey, Rhodonite, could you take him. I-I think his family needs to see him.” Lars said, trying to keep his voice even

Not wanting to argue, she nodded.

  
  


“Be careful with him.” The fusion grabbed the boy and walked through. She looked around and noticed a tree behind and in front of her _‘Maybe if I go to the tree…’_ she walked over to it and put herself and Steven through.

Just then, the Crystal Gems, Connie, and Greg shortly warp in on the warp pad, losing any hope of finding Steven.

“This is hopeless”

Rhodonite gasped in surprise and fear

  
Pearl was pacing around. “We'll never get that dropship to fly, and we're losing time! Who knows what they're doing to Steven! -Hi gem with Steven- What are we going to d-“ she does a double take and notice of Steven. Everyone became happy but quickly saw that he was dead.

“W-what did you do to my baby!?”

“I-.”

“Why are you here? Are you a homeworld gem here to get someone else?”

“N-no-“

“Well, YOUR NOT GOING TO-“

“Pearl, calm down, she can explain.” Garnet said.

“B-but _Garnet-“_

She raised a hand.

“Go on.” She said to the other fusion.

“W-well he told us he went on a trial…. in front of the diamonds…”

“WHAT!? DID THEY DO THIS TO HIM!?” Pearl screamed, ready to go shatter them.

“N-no. Well. Lars, in terms of humans ‘died’ and Steven brought him back, a-and he, well…” she looked down as everyone broke down sobbing.

_‘My baby…’_

_‘My Cutie Pie…’_

_‘My brother..’_

_‘My son…’_

_‘My best friend…’_

Garnet unfused and left while Rhodonite went back to homeworld.

* * *

The gems and Greg decided to clean out Steven’s room.

It was a mess to say the least, no one had touched it since he died. Pearl was going through the drawers, sorting out paper he had in there. When she had taken them all out, she started actually sorting them. She found what appeared to be a handwritten note that said it was addressed to Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, Greg, Connie and Peridot.

They all grouped up after Pearl told them about it. Pearl started reading it.

_‘Hi, It’s me Steven, but you know that, I wr_ …ote this because I wanted to tell you something and I don’t really know how to tell you. So, my healing powers _kinda_ give the injury to me’

  
  


Steven chucked sadly before writing again.

‘I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m half human. I really hope you don’t get mad I didn’t tell you so I’m going to Mo… _m’s fountain. I actually used it to heal myself a bunch of times. I don’t know when I’m giving this to you, but probably soon._

_-Love, Steven._

The group was all in tears. The date was the day before he went to homeworld.

The worst part was that it was his last thing to them.

**Author's Note:**

> I can’t believe I wrote this... It was meant to be just a short 400-500 word fic for ‘Steven Universe One-shots’ and well... I kinda just wrote every time I could remember him healing someone/thing. This is probably the darkest thing I’ve ever wrote and I’m disgusted and proud.


End file.
